Free Republic

While we might like to think that voters research the issues, review the candidates, and then vote for the candidate that best reflects their views; the reality, based on political science research, is much different. According to George Washington University Professor Danny Hayes' research paper "When Gender and Party Collide: Stereotyping in Candidate Trait Attribution," "Stereotypes are relevant in politics because citizens are willing to devote only limited time to thinking about political matters. As a result, political judgments -- whether about issues, events or candidates -- are often the result of a few salient cues. Stereotyping is the assignment...

President Barack Obama’s passive response to the riots and arson in Ferguson may prompt a November rebuke by the silent majority of American voters, says Patrick Buchanan, who was an adviser to President Richard Nixon during the late 1960s race riots.

Immigration is only the 6th-most-important issue for Latino voters in California when casting a vote for a candidate for U.S. Senator or for U.S. Congress, according to a statewide survey conducted by Univision. When registered Latino voters were asked to name their most important issues, the results, in order, were: education (21%), jobs (16%), government spending and the deficit (15%), social security (13%), "how what they do will affect my wallet" (10%), health care (9%), immigration (8%), and crime and personal safety (5%). An overwhelming 86% of those surveyed support comprehensive immigration reform. However, a majority--53%--of registered Latino voters in...

White House pursuing plan to expand immigrant rightssays the LA Times Even as President Obama grapples with the crisis of immigrant children arriving at the Southwest border, White House officials are laying the groundwork for a large-scale expansion of immigrant rights that would come by executive action within weeks.. Officials signaled strongly Friday that Obama's move would shield from deportation large numbers of immigrants living in the country illegally, as advocacy groups have demanded. Roughly 5 million of the estimated 11 million people who entered the country without legal authorization or overstayed their visas could be protected under a leading...

One month ago (in June), the topic of immigration was at 5%. Today? It’s 17%. According to a Gallup poll released a few days ago, immigration has surged to the top of the list as “the Most Important U.S. Problem”. This replaces “dissatisfaction with government” (16%).

Voters strongly believe the United States is a more divided nation these days, and they think both sides are to blame. Most are also ready to do something about it at the ballot box in November.

It may be too soon to label it a trend and there is insufficient data to confirm it, but President Obama and his party may be losing their iron grip on their most loyal and enthusiastic voting bloc: African-Americans. Last Friday in Chicago, a group of black residents of the city's South Side, staged a protest against the violent shootings that are becoming as commonplace as White Sox games at Cellular Field. It wasn't just the protest that should concern the administration and Democrats; it was the language used by some of the protesters, many of whom at the time...

"Political language,” warned George Orwell, “is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” Politicians understand that words matter and can be used to trick people. Which is why they can hardly be trusted to express themselves candidly in their own campaigns — or, heaven forbid, write ballot titles for important measures upon which citizens will vote. Earlier this year, citizens in Phoenix, Arizona, gathered more than 50,000 voter signatures to put an initiative on the ballot to reform their public employee pension system. The initiative moves new...

Those of us who have followed the decline of America under Barack Hussein Obama are supposed to be encouraged by the results of a recent New York Times survey on attitudes toward the president and his policies. The sharp drop in support for this enemy of America is a nice thing but the numbers leave questions that tell a bigger story. While those who have ears to hear and eyes to see recognize that Obama is the worst president in American history, it is a tragedy that at least 40% of Americans identify themselves as too greedy, too stupid or...

The hotly contested Democratic congressional primary in Harlem turned uglier than ever with challenger Adriano Espaillat’s campaign accusing Rep. Charles Rangel of sending out fake eviction notices to suppress the Hispanic vote in Tuesday’s election. A stunned Rangel, 84, who has marched and fought for civil rights during his five-decade career, insisted the accusation was a lie and immediately demanded an apology from Espaillat, a state senator. The explosive claim against Rangel was leveled in tweets by Espaillat campaign adviser Lis Smith.

Hillary Clinton’s strength among white voters is the key to 2016—and it spells nearly certain defeat and disaster for Republicans. Culture will likely shape the 2016 presidential elections, and this is bad news for the Republican Party. Recent polls show Hillary Clinton running well among white voters overall, showing real strength among white non-evangelical Protestants, and running competitively among white Catholics. Trailing only among evangelicals, Clinton is poised to move beyond the upstairs-downstairs coalition that brought Barack Obama to the White House, and that continues to characterize his policies and presidency to this day.

Never before was Election Day so colorful in Ukraine. Thousands of Ukrainians honored the day of voting fot the nation’s fifth president by wearing national costumes. Iryna Kalashnyk from Kyiv was one of many who wore a traditional embroidered shirt, or "vyshyvanka," when she went to the polling station. “We have to show the whole world that we maintain our traditions and that we, Ukrainians, love Ukraine despite the troubles of the last six months,” Kalashnyk told the Kyiv Post.

Clearly immigration was why we lost in 2012. It had nothing to do with a milquetoast Republican candidate who had been on both sides of so many issues that a good portion of Republican voters just stayed home. No, forget the moderate candidate. It was the Hispanic vote that killed us! Also, I’ve got some unicorns in my back yard I’ll be glad to sell you on the cheap.

It's a cliche to say that Washington, D.C., is "out of touch" with voters, but there's something to it. Arguably, in 2012, the Republican Party seemed focused on a subject -- debt -- that wasn't a high priority for average Americans. Sincere Republicans (including this columnist) believe it should be. Nations that cannot pay their bills eventually fall into decline, hardship and worse when governments resort to inflation to pay off their debts. It's easier to make small adjustments now than to endure wrenching hardships later. But the voters remain to be convinced. The Democratic Party today is similarly situated...

Maybe the Chamber of Commerce has an excuse. As business people they are greedy and merely interested in their bottom line. In this modern world if they do destroy America they have the wherewithal to move to a new host country to feast on. The newly legal “Americans” created by amnesty will work in their factories for minimum wages. How they vote is of no concern to the Chamber of Commerce. They don’t live in homes that can be easily breached by marauders, their children don’t go to government schools so they won’t be forced to suffer the substandard education...

OPINION IRS doubles down on lawbreaking with regulation to kill free speech MARK J. FITZGIBBONS • | MARCH 17, 2014 AT 6:08 PM Proposed regulations from the IRS for 501(c)(4) "social welfare organizations" would censor speech such as legislative scorecards, voter registrations and get-out-the-vote projects. They also would eliminate communications before elections that name candidates, even if done in a neutral fashion. The IRS claims its proposed regulations are designed to create “a more uniform set of rules” for social welfare organizations, notwithstanding the long precedent of these types of communications. Censorship is now deemed appropriate tax policy. Coming after...

Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) warned Republican colleagues that “there’s no question that amnesty will be the law of the land in the near future. The GOP can get on-board and share in the credit or be left behind futilely railing against the inevitability of it all.” “The choice they face is simple,” Schumer said. “By joining us in legislatively enacting the legalization of these undocumented immigrants they have a chance to blunt the electoral effect of adding millions of new Latino voters. By opposing us to the bitter end they will earn the enmity of these new voters. They should...

Director John Ziegler captured the utter ignorance of people who voted for Obama in November of 2008. After his “last election,” President Obama’s Gallup approval rating is now 16 points upside down: Only 39% approve of the president, while 55% disapprove. Why people have to go through five years of utter nonsense to figure out that “it’s not working” just goes to show absolutely insulated from reality “low information voters” are: they live in cocoons of politically biased entertainment and pop culture, and any news they are likely to get is slanted towards Democrats.

Texas Voters Take A Stand: 9 out of 10 Want Obamacare Repealed and Welfare Recipients Drug Tested Mac Slavo March 5th, 2014 SHTFplan.com Texas-Takes-Stand Just because one part of the country has seemingly lost its mind and is willing to give up their freedom for the promise of more security doesn’t mean everyone is on board. In Texas, where voters took to the polls Tuesday night, a completely different set of ideas is at play. And if nationwide sentiment is any indication, other conservative and libertarian leaning states will soon follow. Though only about half of the votes have been...